IBM revealed a larger than expected drop in revenue in the first quarter, causing its shares to slide in trading after the bell.

The figures

For the first quarter of 2017, the US computing giant reported its 20th quarterly loss in a row, and investors were not impressed. Shares fell four per cent in after-hours trading.

Revenue dropped 2.8 per cent to $18.16bn (£14.14bn) in the three months ended 31 March, down from $18.68bn in 2016. Analysts were expecting $18.39bn, according to Reuters.

Net income dropped to $1.75bn compared with $2.01bn in the first quarter of 2016.

What IBM said

Ginni Rometty, IBM chairman, said:

"In the first quarter, both the IBM Cloud and our cognitive solutions again grew strongly, which fuelled robust performance in our strategic imperatives. In addition, we are developing and bringing to market emerging technologies such as blockchain and quantum, revolutionising how enterprises will tackle complex business problems in the years ahead.

"We continued to make investments in the first quarter to expand our cognitive and cloud platform and we increased our research and development spending. At the same time we returned more than $2.6bn to shareholders through dividends and gross share repurchases."